Save the Internet

April 26, 2006 — rsn

This week (as early as tomorrow, possibly), the House Commerce Committee will be voting to send a bill to the full house that would probably cripple the internet as we know it. One of the guiding principles of the Internet is the concept of “Network neutrality”: i.e. the idea that no matter your ISP, all sites are equally easy to get to. However, the large Telecommunications companies (Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, etc.) want to change that. The companies want to be able to control which sites you can access. So if certain large companies were to pay enough, their sites would load more quickly than competitors websites (if they were to load at all). You might also see your ISP block sites that they didn’t like (as has already happened in Canada). One of the great things about the internet is that it is a bit of an equalizer… You can get to any site you want, big or small. The free and equal nature of the internet is also bringing about a sea change in people’s involvement in all things, be it an interest in hobbies or government or politics, what have you. All this will likely change if a law like the one under consideration is passed.

I think it’s extremely important for us (if you do indeed support the concept of network neutrality) to try to let our Congresspeople/Senators know exactly how important network neutrality is. While those Reps in the pockets of the big Telcos will probably vote a certain way, there are many representatives who just don’t know enough about the idea. It would be great if we could let them know how important it is to maintain network neutrality.

Here are some links with much, much more information:

Please inform yourselves about the issue and contact your rep/senators if you feel that this is an issue that’s important to you. There are links available at some of the above sites that will allow you to very easily send comments to your rep/senators.

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